From underdog to overdog: Eriks Stendzenieks lecture @Cannes_Lions

Cannes Lions has been Inspiring Creativity for 60 years. It is the world's greatest celebration of creative communications in all its forms. Over seven days in June each year the whole creative industry comes together to learn from the best and celebrate the work changing the communications landscape.

The topic rises certain questions. If “Underdog” is (accordingly to Google Online dictionary) “A competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest”, what is an “Overdog”, then? And does “Underdogs” have something “Overdogs” can learn from?

Underdog and overdog: Eriks@Cannes

Dear colleagues. Time of being an underdog is short. Enjoy it while you can. It is like being a talented junior creative in the agency. It is like spending time in a playground.

Good news – advertising is an underdog profession itself. You cannot kill anyone by it. It’s not a heart-surgery, man.

I’ve got a friend.
His name is Neil French.
Before he landed in advertising, he was a bouncer, a debt collector, death-metal band manager, bullfighter and producer (and even actor) of pornographic films. And every time I cuss about how difficult my life in advertising is, he says something like “you know, Eriks, I’ve got like thousand scars on my body. And not a single one of them is from advertising”.

I am not here to evangelise, andstageom a stage. And still… If you could keep this underdog feeling alive no matter what scale your agency is… That will help a lot.